Shackle of Stars
by theelegantbookworm
Summary: Set after the events of Clare Dunkle's short story A Parisian Judgement. I was really curious to see what would happen when Aganir Usan finally did take a bride as well as how long Catspaw and Nir's treaty would last. Critiques are welcome, or if you read it and like it, just leave a :) I'll post the next chapter once I at least get a :) or a review.
1. Chapter 1

She screamed, loud and long, praying that someone would hear her. Screaming had never been something she'd done much of, not even when she came across the grizzly bear in the berry bushes the summer she was ten years old or when she'd fallen out of the canoe into the icy river. This was far more terrifying than the encounter with the bear. The lights from the Hall glowed like distant beacons as she was carried further and further from their safety. She struggled, kicking, clawing, biting, and scratching, but her captor's grip remained firm. He merely shifted her weight, carrying her in his arms like a squabbling child. From her new position, she saw again that terrible angelic face and wondered at the wrongness of this. How could beauty be so terrifying? The forrest was around them now, the dark shapes of trees blocking out most of the moonlight under their thick canopy of leaves, but the monstrous angel walked as smoothly as if it were day. She kept struggling to be free, but fear and effort were beginning to exhaust her, and her escape attempts grew weaker and weaker. After a while, she became aware that they were not alone, an awareness that was confirmed when her captor spoke strange sounding words into the darkness and the darkness answered back. Her eyes tried to adjust to the night, but only when they drew close did she see the faces. They were dazzlingly pretty, inhumanly so, but none of them were as terrible as her captor's. He set her down on the soft grass, holding her tightly around the waist. A group of beautiful women hurried up to her as her captor said something in the strange language again. One woman with blonde hair came forward to take her arm and her captor let her go. Immediately, she tried to bolt, but she couldn't. As her heart hammered in a horrified panic, the blonde woman led her through the clearing as the other beautiful women followed. They went into the forrest again, and she realized that the women must be able to see in the dark, for no one stumbled or tripped like she did. To her horror they began taking her clothes off and what hair stilled remained pinned, down. She put up as much of a fight as she could, clutching her shift close until the blonde woman offered her a strange green dress. Seeing the distraction, the other women quickly had her shift from her and the new dress over her head before she could fight them off. Someone tied a belt around her and slipped another dress, a darker green than the first over her head. The dresses fit her perfectly, but how that was possible, she didn't know. Hands were in her hair, combing and braiding it and she smelled flowers and felt a wreath being placed on her head. The women chatted happily as they surveyed their work, but all she felt like doing was crying. The blonde woman took her hand and led her back they way that they had come. A crowd was assembled in the clearing now, a crowd of inhuman beauty dressed all in green. They opened to make a path for her that lead to her captor. She felt dizzy and sick with fear as she was led down the crowd. She was too tired to fight when the blonde woman gently pushed her down onto a stool, to tired to care about the tears that were streaming down her face as her captor tied strands of lilies around her wrists and ankles. Gently, he pulled her to her feet and spoke to her for the first time since kidnapping her.

"Look at me." Despite herself, she did and found that she couldn't look away from those black eyes. Something told her that she should, but she couldn't. It was as if the entire cosmos above them was in those eyes, pulling her very being into them. The strange feeling faded and she looked down to see that the flowery bracelets were gone, replaced by silver stars that now enclosed both her wrists and ankles. The stars glimmered and shone as she turned her wrists this way and that, not noticing that her captor had knelt down and was writing something on top of her bare feet. He rose slowly and took both of her hands in his.

"Stand still." He said and she did. She didn't know why, but she obeyed and couldn't even move when he kissed both of her eyelids and spoke the strange language again. A happy babble broke out, like the crowd assembled around them had been holding their breath. A fiddle and harp began to play and the crowd began to dissipate, dancing off into the clearing. Past bewilderment and terror by now, she stood there shaking from fear and exhaustion. Her captor saw this and picked her up, carrying her off towards the trees.

Lena's eyes flew open as the Daylight Spell released her from sleep, her breath coming in shaky gaps. She felt herself being lifted up and clung to Usan's arm as he held her and stroked her hair.

"It's alright." The elf King murmured. He kept stroking her hair. "You're safe Lena."

Lena felt too miserable to reply. Nearly two months had passed since that night of their wedding, two months since she'd learned that elves and goblins were real and she found herself forced to join their world. As Usan held her, her thought went back to her family and she wondered if they were looking for her. They'd heard of her disappearance from Aunt Catherine by now, but it would take weeks to get from the wilds of Wyoming to England. She let go of Usan's arm and he let her go.

"It's nearly time for the evening meal." He said quietly. "Do you want to go eat with the others?"

She shook her head. All she wanted to do was to stay in the tent and hide. Usan took her hand in his.

"Come and spend time with us." He said and Lena found herself following him out of the tent as her starry shackles sparkled in protest. She wasn't sure how the spell decided what was a reasonable command, but it didn't change the fact that she didn't always have control over her own actions now. Lena couldn't even take her hand from the elf King's as they made their way from the sleeping area under the thickest cover of trees. Elves emerged from the sleeping area or the river where they bathed and joined their king and his wife as they went to break the day's fast. The elf King led Lena to a the base of a small oak tree that had a thick carpet of grass. She sat down and he left to get their food. The happy sounds of elvish chatter was all around her even if she couldn't see the speaker clearly. Maybe her eyes were getting used to the dark, but she missed her sight almost as much as her family. Homesickness welled up inside her until it hurt and Lena shut her eyes in a pathetic attempt to shut out the pain. It didn't work. It never did. By the time Usan returned with some apples, bread, and venison, she was silently sobbing.

"I want to go home!" she whispered, more to herself than to him. She didn't see the elf King's face grimace in pain at her words, but she felt him wrap his arms around her as he sat down. Lena pulled away from him. "Don't tell me it's going to be alright! Don't you dare!" she snapped. A few nearby elves lifted their heads at her angry tone, but she didn't care if they had an audience. The elf King looked upset, though why he should be was beyond her.

"This is your home now." He told her. "I 'd let you go back to the daylight world if I could, but I can't. You're too important." He took some of the bread and pressed it into her hand. "You need to eat Lena. I won't let you starve yourself. Eat."

As her hand torn off a piece of bread and her teeth chewed it, Lena glared at her husband with loathing and her tears became angry ones. When she'd eaten enough to satisfy him, she balled her hands into fists, wishing that the stars would let her strike him. A blonde elf man ran up and made a salute of some kind before rambling off something in elvish. Lena's grasp of the language was small, mainly because she refused to answer when Usan tried to teach her, but she did catch the word for border mentioned several times. From the frown on the elf King's face, the messenger's news was not good. Usan rose and called an elf over to them. Lena recognized Kiba, the older blonde elf woman who had been in charge of preparing her for the wedding. He spoke to her in elvish and Kiba nodded solemnly. "There is some business on our borders that I must take care of." He told his angry wife. "Kiba will keep you company until I return. Follow her instructions as you would mine." The last word were for the stars and Lena shot her new jailer an angry glare in response. The elf woman merely looked passively at her. As the elf King walked off with his lieutenants, Kiba said something to her and Lena found herself getting to her feet. They wandered through the camp with many of the elves calling out greetings as they passed, but Lena felt her mood darken as the twilight faded. A little elf girl ran up to them, looking timidly at Lena with big dark eyes as she hurriedly said something in elvish. Kiba smiled and turned to Lena.

"Lilan ask if you want to play with them. The children send her to ask." She explained in halting English. Lena looked at the little girl, who smiled up at her hopefully from beneath her black was the smile that did it. Lilan offered her hand and Lena let herself be led towards a group of children. None of them spoke English, and so they pantomimed how to play their game, which Lena quickly realized was a version of hide and seek. Lilan became her partner, sticking by her side to help her. As the game went on, Lena actually found herself grinning as she chased and was chased by screaming children. She laughed as she caught her breath, for the first time in two months. Eventually the game ended and the girl disappeared to other activities. Seeing Kiba preoccupied by a conversation with an elf man, Lena snuck into the trees and towards the river. At this time of night, the river was empty, with the elves having already bathed. She made her way along the banks until she came to the curve in the river where the elf King brought her to bathe. Slipping off her slippers, she walked onto the little rocky outcropping and sat, dangling her feet into the cool running water beneath. If she closed her eyes, she could pretend that she was home, sitting by the fishing spot on the Snake River where her parents liked to picnic. _Mama. Papa. I miss you. Please find me._ She prayed. How long she sat there wishing for home, she didn't know, but a soft hand on her shoulder made Lena jump. She looked up to see the elf King.

"Kiba told me you were down here." He explained softly. He paused. "That place in your thoughts. Is that your home?"

Any other time Lena would have panicked over the revelation that not even her thoughts were her own now, but the homesickness that had eased with the children's game had returned and it clenched her heart so tightly that she couldn't speak. She nodded slowly, her eyes shut as she tried to keep the image fixed in her mind for as long as possible.

Usan sat down next to her. "It is beautiful. I see why you miss it." Hesitantly, he put an arm around her and Lena let him draw her close. It wasn't that she thought any better of the elf King. Right then, all she wanted was the comfort of being held.


	2. Chapter 2

Four more months past. Lena squinted as the moonlight reflected off of the snow as she slipped away from the other women. The spell that the elf King worked on her eyes to let her see in the nighttime was nearly complete, but with the full moon and the snow she could see the forrest as as if it were day. She made her way through the camp looking for Usan until she spotted one of his lieutenants.

"Tibir!" she called out. The black haired elf lord ended his conversation with two of the guards and walked over to her. "Where is Usan?"

"In the library." He replied. "He's been there since midnight."

She thanked him and made her way there, happy to be shed her thick brown cloak once she reached the caves of the winter camp. Lena carefully made her way down the narrow path next to the underground waterfalls, moving slowly so that she didn't slip on wet rock. A few of the king's scholars were in the center room of the library, but her husband was no where to be found. Bar, the oldest scholar in the king's camp, pointed her towards one of the smaller rooms. She found Usan there, pouring over a book. He looked up from the book and smiled at her. "How was your walk?"

"It was fine. The children started throwing snowballs at us at the end. Aren't they supposed to be at their lessons?" While most of the elves time seemed to be devoted to nothing but pleasure, the children did spend some time learning magic.

"I doubt the lore-masters had the heart to keep them from their play with this weather." Usan said with a laugh. As he turned back to the book, Lena took a closer look at what he was reading. The handwritten script was elvish and she caught the characters for "raid" and "warriors" repeated multiple times.

"What are you reading?" she asked.

Usan shut the book. "The King's Chronicles. I wanted to consult them before court tonight." He smiled at her hopefully. "Will you come with me?"

Lena made herself look away from that smile, knowing that if she didn't she would say yes to her husband's request. Usan held court several times a week, but she'd only attended a handful of times in the past months. It wasn't that she found it boring; Usan had been very good at translating and explaining what was going on to her. But with all of the lords and ladies of the court and some from the camps in attendance as well, nothing made Lena feel more out of place, more aware that she didn't belong in this world of magic and inhuman beauty. She felt Usan take her hand and she turned to see him standing next to her.

"It would do the court good to see you there." He said quietly. Their eyes met and she saw the sad hope in his.

"Alright." There was no way she could refuse him when he looked at her like that. He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it with a smile.

"Come. They should be assembling."

As the elf King led her out of the library, Lena realized that their entire exchange had made her forget to ask what story the characters in the book told. When they reached the geode covered entrance to the cave her stopped her.

"What is it?" Lena asked, a little irritated at this sudden stop.

Usan smiled at her. "Hold still for a moment." Before she could ask what he was doing, he ran his right hand through her hair. Immediacy, she felt several things in her hair and Lena reached up to touch them. Her finger tips brushed soft petals of the flowers that were tucked in her hair; she gently plucked one of the petals and saw it was a white rose petal. The delicate fragrance floated around her like a cloud. Usan surveyed his handiwork, pleased by the results.

"You had a rose in your hair when I first saw you." He told her.

Lena frowned as she tried to remember the encounter from months ago. "No I wasn't." She corrected. "We first met at the fair." But the elf King shook his head.

"I first saw you a few weeks before that. It was a dinner party my uncle held after you first arrived at the Hall. You were on the terrace that faces the forest- you wore a purple dress." He added.

She remembered that party. Mr. Richardson had held it to welcome his daughter-in-law and her niece a week after she and Aunt Catherine had arrived at Hollow Hill. But it wasn't the revelation that Usan had seen her long before they'd met that surprised Lena. "Your uncle?"

The elf King nodded as they made there way towards the towering pine were he held courting this camp. "My mother was his older sister. Did you ever see the painting of a girl with red hair in a blue gown he has?" she remembered a tour of the hall that Mr. Richardson had given her where he had pointed out such as painting and nodded. "That was her."

"He said she died shortly after it was painted." Lena exclaimed, her head still reeling from this revelation. "Was he lying? Does he know she didn't?"

"No, he believes she is dead. He went to her funeral after all. It's a goblin enchantment."

Lena stared at him, her mouth still hanging open. "Why would the goblin's enchant him? Why would you let them? He doesn't even know you exist does he?" The entire situation seemed unbearably cruel- to enchant someone to believe that a loved one was dead when they really weren't.

Usan sighed, clearly uncomfortable with her questions. "It's a very long story. I'll tell you after court." They were already nearing the pine so Lena had no chance to argue further. The elves danced and played music before the great tree as Usan led Lena to the throne that had been made into the trunk of the tree. The black haired lords and ladies saluted their king and the business of court began. Lena sat on the throne watching it all. First, Tibir presented Lord Dashka, one of the nine camp lords. Usan had told her that there used to be eighteen camps, but after the elf harrowing his people were still regaining their former strength. What exactly had caused this dying off Lena still didn't know. She listened closely, her small stock of elvish allowing her understand the general idea of what was going on. Lord Dashka's camp had seen an increase in goblins encroaching on the borders of the camp. A single look at her husband told her that this was not news that Usan wanted to hear. His brows knit together in an angry frown and he spoke to Tibir, too quickly for her to catch what they said. Tiber spoke to Lord Dashka, whose replied illicited what Lena guessed was an elvish curse word from Usan. After a minute he spoke to Lord Dashka, who looked pleased by what was said and gave a solution before leaving.

"What was that all about?" Lena whispered when Susan walked back to her.

"Goblins have been sneaking closer and closer to Lord Dashka's camp." Usan grimly replied. "They haven't attacked yet, but they're just close enough that everyone is too terrified to leave the camp. And they vanish before Dashka or his warriors can capture them. But unless they kill someone or they raid the camp, I can do nothing unless they are captured. That's why I've agreed to let Lord Dashka set traps for them."

Lena felt a chill run down her back. She'd yet to see a goblin, but the descriptions that Usan and Kiba had given her were terrifying, even with their bias. "Why are they stalking the camp? I thought there was a spell that only lets elves into the camps."

Usan motioned over another lord and gave him an order. "The Border Spell keeps humans out completely, but goblins can cross it if they're in groups. It would take several of them just to lift the spell temporarily, and even then they could only cross one at a time." He frowned. "As far as why they're doing this, the goblins have always hunted the elves for brides."

"For brides?" The bile in her stomach rose a little.

"Yes. There was a treaty during the reign of my father that promised no brides would be taken, but it ended upon his death and the death of Marak Catspaw. His son already has a wife, but neither of his lieutenants are married and the goblins always sought elf brides for the members of their high families. My guess is that Boarstusk is allowing his guard to test our borders, to scope out our strength to see if a raid is possible. But if he thinks I will sit back and let any elf maiden be taken into the hill, he is very badly mistaken."

Lena bristled at this denial, at the sheer hypocrisy of it. "Indeed. Anyone who would take a girl from her home and family and force her into marriage should be stopped." It gave her not a small bit of satisfaction to seem him wince.

"Lena-" he began but she rose from the throne.

"I understand that you have to protect the elves. But don't vilify someone for doing exactly what you did to me." She bitterly stated. She noticed that they elves were waiting on them, watching their conversation with intent politeness. "You're court's waiting."

As the court went on, Lena sat listlessly on the throne. When Usan and the court's attention was focused on rebuilding a tenth camp, she slipped away and headed into the forest. The elf King found his frustrated and upset wife in the grove where he'd magicked snowdrops to appear for her a few days ago. New snow had turned the petals brown, but it was a simple enough spell to make them fresh again. She turned to him as soon as the spell was complete.

"My father told me that the thing I would hate most about being king was the sorrow and unhappiness I would bring to my bride. He came to terms with having to kidnap my mother, but I don't think he ever really forgave himself for it. I know I will not."

Lena felt a sharp reroute spring to her lips, but it died when she saw the genuine anguish on Usan's face. Her resolve to be angry with him softened. "What was your mother like?"

He smiled wistfully, like he was remembering something happy that was tinged with sadness. "She was very dignified, but she had a kind heart for those she cared about, especially her family."

"Then why was your uncle enchanted to think she died when she didn't?"

"My mother's parents were raised by the goblins. She was raised to be the King's Wife for the next goblin king, so to keep the kingdom a secret, the old king enchanted her family to believe she had died when he took her down to his kingdom." Usan saw the next question on her lips and grinned at her. "How did she end up marrying the elf King then? I did tell you it was a long story." For more than two hours, Lena listened, entranced, to a story almost too incredible to believe. Switched brides and long lost kings? Even in this world, it sounded like the stuff of fairy tales. They'd sat down in the grove long ago and now Lena leaned against the elf King as Usan wrapped his cloak around both of them.

"Haven't you wanted to meet your uncle? He is your family after all." She finally asked. That was what had been bothering her about the whole story, she realized, the magical world's rejection of what she had been taught to value.

"I've made sure that he is comfortable and taken care of for my mother's sake. But telling him the truth could endanger both the elf and the goblin kingdoms. There are evil people in this world who would destroy both races if they learned of our existence."

Lena thought about this and decided that it was tragically practical. A secret was better kept when fewer people knew of it, no matter the pain caused in its keeping. "It's so sad though." She finally said. "All of her family thinking she was dead."

Usan gave a little shrug. "Not quite. My mother's younger sister Charlotte married a goblin. She and my mother used to send letters to each other after her marriage. I still get a letter from her now and then."

Something about this revelation made Lena smile. Maybe because it lent a bit of familiarity to Usan, something that she could relate to. Maybe it was the idea of this powerful king getting letters from his aunt. The elf King watched his wife's face light up with one of her rare smiles.

"What?" he asked, wanting to know what had brought the smile to her face so that he could do it again. But Lena shook her head, still grinning.

"It's nothing." She rose to her feet. "It's nearly time for the morning meal isn't it?"


	3. Chapter 3

The winter passed slowly, as slowly as Lena's struggle to come to terms with her new life. She'd managed to make it an entire week without crying at least once from homesickness until she'd overheard some of the elves comment on the large fir tree that had been erected in the center of the nearest village and realized it was close to Christmas. Her parents would have arrived in Hollow Hill to look for her by now, and the thought that she was so close to them made her heart hurt to breaking for the first time in months. Even though she knew the impossibility of it, Lena harbored the dream of escape; the elf King began to find his wife at the camp's borders, the seven star sparkling in fury as she stood unable to take the next step. Even more emotionally sensitive than his elves, Usan was painfully aware of her misery and did what he could to ease it; when she woke sobbing from nightmares, he took them away with magic and held her until the tears subsided. He took her for walks, teaching her the elvish words for things, performed magic he thought would amuse her. Lena found his nearly constant attention to her to be suffocating, and longed just for a moment to be alone. She went to such lengths to achieve a moment of solitude that the elf King had to locate her several times a night. This came to a head when Lena went missing during a snow storm and was found half frozen and with a raging fever. Confined by magic to their tent to recover, she grew even more restless and depressed. Upset by his inability to comfort his wife, Usan poured over the entries that his father had written about his mother in the King's Chronicles, but his mother had not been the typical elf King's bride, so he found nothing to help him. The earlier King's Chronicles proved even less helpful and not for the first time did Usan curse the weakness of his ancestors before the harrowing. He returned to his tent after another fruitless search through the Chronicles to find that Lena was not alone. Standing just out of sight, the elf King heard Lilan's happy voice ask his wife what happened next. Unlike the past weeks, Lena's voice didn't sound exhausted and sorrowful as she recounted how her mother had made her remain inside for an entire week as punishment.

"How big was the bear?" The elf girl's eyes widened in wonder.

Lena gave her a little smile. The little girl had taken to keeping Lena company lately, her sweet natured innocence a welcome relief from the purpose driven attention of the elf women who watched her when Usan was busy. "When it stood on its hind quarters, nearly as tall as a sapling, though it seemed even bigger then." She reached and tickled the elf girl to emphasize the point. As Lilan giggled, Lena looked up and saw the elf King watching them.

"Lilan, I need to work another healing spell on Lena. Can you come back later?" The order was hidden within the gentleness of his words, but the little girl nodded and scampered out of the tent. Lena looked away out of resentment as Usan turned to her. "Lena," he pleaded as he had so often before. "Please. Talk to me."

"Are my parents still looking for me?" she quietly asked as he winced. "I know you know. Please Usan, I have to know."

His eyes opened, two black pools that stretched into eternity. "That's the first time you have called me by my name." The black pools locked onto her, offering comfort that she feared and yet desperately wanted to accept. "They are. Your father remains at the Hall, along with a man from the yard of Scotland."

"Scotland Yard." She corrected. The corner of Usan's mouth twitched as if this irritated him, but he remained silent. Lena took a breath to keep her voice from breaking for what she had to say next. "But he won't find anything will he?" It was a rhetorical question. The elf King looked at the miserable expression on his young wife's face, the utter despair that filled her eyes, and he took her hand

"I cannot send you back to your home, but whatever is in my power to give you, it is yours." It was the most he could give her and he hoped it would be enough. Not for the first time was Usan surprised by how much he truly wanted Lena to be happy. When he'd first seen her and somehow known that she would be the mother of his son, he'd only known she was uncommonly pretty for a human. Now though, after he had seen flashes of a personality so different from anything elvish, he knew that she hadn't been the only one enchanted that night.

Lena stared at her hand in his and the stars stopped sparkling for the first time in several days. Whatever was in his power? The ruler of a magical race and the most powerful among them and yet he was unable to let her go home. If she couldn't have that, if she was going to spend the rest of her life in this forrest, what would make the years of night to come more bearable? "I need to know what happens to my parents. Can you give me that at least?"

There was no hiding the relief on the elf King's face. "Yes. I'll work the spell tonight I you wish, just as long you promise to get better."

"Won't your healing spells take care of that?" she asked, a little bitter over how much magic he had already worked on her. But Usan shook his head.

"There is only so much healing that magic can do, even my magic, if the person does not want to be healed."

Did she want to be healed? If she was honest with herself, she did. The elvish world that had claimed her had a beauty that it would have broken Lena's heart to leave, but she felt guilty for wanting to stay, to feel better, to not miss her parents. She would be apart of this world until death; why shouldn't she accept what happiness it offered her in recompense for what it had taken? The elf King was certainly a beautiful of making amends, more so for his good heart that Lena reluctantly had to acknowledge than his inhumanly handsome appearance. Slowly nodding, she heard herself say the words.

"I promise."

Usan was overjoyed, but he did his best to hide the elation he felt at hearing these words. He felt near tidy with success as he worked the healing spell on Lena and quickly thought of a way to channel his emotions. "What story were you telling Lilan before I came in?"

Lena gave a dry little laugh despite herself. "It was about the time I snuck out to pick berries one summer and nearly got mauled by a grizzly bear. My mother was furious."

"Would you tell it to me?"

She thought for a moment but nodded. "I was about ten years old. Our cabin has woods running a little ways behind it, and I decided to go pick some berries, but my father couldn't come and make sure that the thicket was safe. The bears love berries nearly as much as we do you see, and by the time they're ripe, the bears are starting to get fat for winter…"


	4. Chapter 4

The return of spring brought the return of the green clothing that the elves had worn when Lena had first arrived. Early violets decorated the emerald carpet of the spring camp and after Lilan had finished with it, Lena's hair as well. She smiled down at her as the elf girl pulled her towards where her mother and several other elf women were making cloth. Lilan sat down next to Kiba and began to work on the pile of wool and wood debris that her mother set in front of her, cupping handfuls of it that she turned into green yarn with her spell. Kiba watched her daughter's progress for a moment before smiling at Lena and patting the ground next to her.

"Would you wind this for me Lena?" she asked, handing Lena a skein of already spun yarn. She smiled back, grateful to be included in a task that she knew the women had created just for her. The had another spell that wound the yarn into balls much faster than her human hands ever could. They fell into a happy babble that turned their work into play, especially when Sura began to sing. It was a new song for Lena, but she knew the chorus by the third time they sang it. The song ended and the women smiled broadly at her.

"You have a wonderful voice." Sura told her

"Can you teach us one of your songs please Lena?" Lilan asked innocently, but the women suddenly stiffened at the potential trigger. Lena gulped as her heart squeezed painfully inside her chest, but a memory of her mother forced it back.

"My mother taught me this song when I was a little younger than you." She explained. "And her mother taught her, and her mother taught her." Lena started winding the yarn in time with the beat of the song as she began singing:

 _A fhir a bháta is na horó eile_

 _A fhir a bháta is na horó eile_

 _A fhir a bháta is na horó eile_

 _Mo shoraid slán leat gach áit a dtéid thú_

 _Theid mé suas ar an chnoc is airde_

 _Féach a bhfeic mé fear a bháta_

 _An dtig thú anocht nó an dtig thú amárach?_

As she finished the song, she felt someone gently pull her to her feet. Usan looked her her with a mixture of joy and surprise.

"I've never heard a song like that before." He said. "Or that language. It's beautiful."

Lena ducked her head, embarrassed by the compliment. She'd never heard her mother's language called beautiful before. "It's a Gaelic song." The elves all looked confused. Well, what could be expected with the little they had to do with their English neighbors. "Gaelic is the native language of Ireland." She explained.

Usan wrapped her into his arms. "Where did you learn it?"

"Her mother taught her!" Lilan excitedly volunteered. "And her mother before that!"

Lena looked away as she thought of how the tradition would end with her. Her mother had endured beatings at school for speaking Gaelic, scorn and prejudice for being Irish when she first arrived in America, so she had made sure that her daughter learned her native tongue because of what she had suffered. Now though, Lena would never have a daughter to teach. The elf King saw the upset expression on his wife's face and spun her around to face him.

"Let's go join the dancing." She let him lead her away from the women, leaving her single ball of yarn next to Kiba's ten. Dancing provided Lena with a welcomed focus for her thoughts, but as they neared the dancing meadow Tibir ran up to them.

"The guard have captured some goblins outside Lord Dashka's camp!" he said in breathless excitement. The effect that this news had on Usan was immediate and terrifying; his eyes lit up with a cold intensity that seemed as if it would burn whatever they looked upon as the strange authoritative force that separated him from his elves grew. The elves around them seemed to notice it as well, subconsciously flinching away from their king except for Tibir, who fidgeted from foot to foot. Lena had to fight the urge to tear her sweating hand out of his.

"Go ahead and join the others at the dancing meadow Lena." He said, but she shook her head.

"I want to see a goblin." In all of the stories she'd been told about goblins, they were made to be these horrible hideous creatures. It would be interesting to see if there was any truth beyond the bias. "Please Usan, you said yourself the stars kept me especially safe from them anyway, so what's the harm?"

The elf King hesitated for a moment before giving in. "Alright. But I want you to stay out of sight. And if there is any sign of trouble, you run further into camp."

Slightly exhilarated by this victory, Lena nodded and walked alongside Usan as warriors filed out from behind the trees and formed a grim procession. Everyone was silent, with the wind rustling the leaves of the trees the only sound to break the tension that seemed to be rising as they drew farther and farther away from the camp. It seemed as though they walked for an eternity before the elf King came to a halt. He turned to his wife, taking her face into his hands.

"Stay by this elm."

She nodded, her bravado gone as she caught of glimpse of the group of warriors who were gathered around two figures kneeling on the ground. The elves stepped aside as their king approached, revealing the bound captives they guarded. Lena took a deep breath and was promptly and terribly astonished by the sight of her first goblins. The first was almost disappointing in his appearance, so human looking despite the silvery sheen of his kin and his long tapering ears that Lena thought there must have been some kind of mistake. There was no mistaking the monstrosity of the second goblin; burly with skin like gray leather, she couldn't stifle the horrified gasp that escaped from her mouth at the sight of the rhinoceros horn protruding from where his nose should have been. Both goblins had begun shifting nervously in their binds as soon as they saw the elf King; the strange force seemed to make him taller and more intimidating. Usan had told her the goblins were the opposite of the elves; the visual proof of the vast difference between their extreme appearances was almost overwhelming. Lena looked to see if her husband shared her reaction, but Usan surveyed the captives with commonplace disgust. What he did next was nearly as shocking to Lena as the goblins' appearances.

"Well, cousin." He coldly remarked. "What brings you to trespass on my land? Your mother is well I trust?" The human-goblin looked terrified, but he nodded. "Then I'm left with a bit of a dilemma, because I can think of no other honest purpose for you invading my forest and Lord Dashka's as we are, I doubted Boarstusk could resist the urge to add more elvish blood to his high families for long." His cousin broke out in a cold sweat, but his companion sneered defiantly at the elf King.

"Our king did not send us to raid for brides." The rhinoceros goblin growled.

Usan gave a chilling laugh. "Of course not. There are only two of you after all. No, I imagine Boarstusk sent you here just to scout out the possibility of a raid. After all, who could reasonably expect not to be killed if captured more than my own cousin? And if you were captured, Boarstusk could deny that he sent you to raid for brides, which would be the technical truth that your kind loves so much." Both goblins balked at that; rhinoceros nose actually seemed shocked. The elf King smiled coldly at him. "Apart from your general ugliness, goblins do have another negative trait; they think they are the only intelligent race. For all that you were named for an elf, Hunter, you certainly have a goblin's arrogance when it comes to scheming. If my brother king wishes to test me, I will respond in kind. Tibir!" he called for his lieutenant. "Take them to the prison. If Boarstusk wants them back, he will have to tell me what they were doing in my forest in the first place." As the goblins were roughly hauled to their feet, he gave them one last satisfied smirk. "At least I will have something interesting to record in the Chronicle tonight."

As the goblins were roughly hauled to their feet and dragged away, Lena realized that she hadn't moved a single muscle during the entire exchange. She let out a shuddering gasp that turned her legs to jelly. Usan was by her side in an instant, lifting her up from the ground.

"Are you alright? You did very well Lena- I don't think a single elf woman could have stayed so quiet in front of a goblin."

She looked him, saw the worry the worry in his face, and decided to lie. "I-I-I'm fine" she stammered, giving Usan her best attempt at a reassuring smile to convince him that was the truth. How could she tell him how terrifying he had been? "What are you going to do them?"

"Use them to force Boarstusk to admit he is attempting to break the treaty and make him agree to extend it. There still aren't enough elves that we'd survive if the goblin's began raiding again." He stiffened, realizing that he'd hit on the a topic that usually set of a firestorm of criticism and argument from her. But his human wife seemed distracted and Usan decided to change the subject quickly. "Boarstusk has outsmarted me before. It feels good to have returned the favor."

"Aren't we going to the dancing meadow?" Lena asked as Usan headed towards the tree-room that housed the library in the spring camp.

"Not tonight." He said, giving her forehead a kiss. "I need to record what's happened in the Chronicles. You should go along though."

She thought about it for a moment as she watched Usan walk away, but Lena didn't feel like dancing anymore. Instead, she made her way back to their tent, sat down on the pallet, and took out the wooden box with lilies carved on its lid. Usan had given it to her a a birthday present; it was magiked to hold whatever she put into it. Inside lay the closest thing to royal regalia that the elves had; the magical diamond bracelet and the Wife's Chronicle. The bracelet, which glowed with a magical light, had belonged to Usan's mother, and oddly enough, to the goblin King's wife before her. Lena rarely used it; for one, she now saw just as well as the elves did at night, and the the other was that the triple rope of diamonds seemed too gaudy for the natural beauty of the elvish world. She wrapped it around her wrist and opened the book. Unlike her husband, she did not intend to write about tonight's events, at least not yet.

The elf King had been ashamed to tell her that the Wife's Chronicles had only begun with his mother, apologizing in his way for the near-fatal arrogance of his ancestors that Usan didn't like to speak of. Miranda's neat and precise handwriting greeted her from the pages; unlike her husband or his father, Lena felt no apprehension about the double meaning of the name. A recognizable human name gave her one connection to her old world. She skimmed through the entries until she found one that looked promising:

 _Nir has begun teaching Usan the King's Spells; Usan told me they were going over the Border Spell when Hunter arrived and told of when Nir had placed the Border Spell. Ash too later told me he had no idea that Hunter had reacted as he did. I smiled, but Hunter's reaction was all too familiar; I've heard the other elves recount the strange feeling that overcame them when Nir found them, and Kate and Sable's reaction to being Called is proof enough of the power of King's magic. I don't think that either Nir or Catspaw even know how terrifying they can be…_

Lena sat for a long while with the Chronicle open on her lap, trying to make sense of this world. By the time that Usan finished his work and came looking for her, she had purposely put aside her uneasiness. As they made their way to the morning meal, there was no trace that Lena had been upset by what she had seen that night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry about the delay in getting this chapter out- between the holidays and uni, I was pressed for time! Anyway, I need some input from my wonderful readers about what to do next. I have two different story arcs for this fanfic that I can't decide which one to use. I plan on writing them both at some point, but right now, I only have time for one. Would you like to see interaction with the fanfic characters and canon characters such a Marak, Kate, Catspaw, Nir, etc... (would you like for them to make an actual appearance?), which I'm calling Option A, or would you like for me to stick to what is realistic within cannon, Option B? Post your opinion in the comments section- whichever option has the most comments on January 25 will be what I go with. And without further ado, back to the elves :)** I was listening to the song Anirion by Enya when I wrote the final part of the chapter***

The message from Boarstusk came within the week. Usan found her as Lena was returning from a walk with Sura.

"Boarstusk has called a truce meeting."

Lena blinked in surprise. "Was there a messenger?" she asked, thinking of how Usan's aunt usually sent her letters. The walk with Sura had taken only a couple of hours and there had been no word from the Guard before they left of an approaching goblin. Usan shook his head and pointed up to the constellation that the elves called.

"It's the traditional way for the Kings to summon a meeting in the truce circle." He gave her a quick kiss. "I'll be back before dawn." Lena gave him a the tiniest reassured smiled and Usan turned to join his waiting lieutenants. Once they had left the camp's boundaries, all three of them removed their cloaks for the travel spell; without magic, the spring camp was several days walk from the truce circle. The spell shortened the trip to the length of a breath, and Usan was soon making his way uphill towards the circles of oak, Tiber and Dirzal following behind him. It had been almost two years since he'd last been to the truce circle, when their roles had been reversed and he'd comes to collect Essad after the elf had trespassed onto goblin lands yet again. And like that night, his brother king was already waiting with his lieutenants within the double rings.

"Good evening." Boarstusk said curtly.

"And to you." Usan replied, with equal coldness. "We can dispense with the pleasantries. What were Hunter and Thomas doing on my land? Did you think because our numbers are small our defenses would be weak?"

The goblin king gave a half-shrug. "Off course I did. As I recall, your defense spells were rather weak when we were children."

"Which we are not anymore. If Seylin were still here, you would never have done this." The elf goblin had been their first tutor in the final years of his life; when he died, he'd been so hopeful that better relations between the two races would exist. The elf king was glad he was not here to see this now. Usan crossed his arms and walked towards Boarstusk, who actually seemed abashed at the reminder of their tutor. "Speaking of Seylin's family, how is my aunt handling her youngest son's imprisonment?"

Boarstusk's snout lifted his his form of a patronizing smile. "Better than you seem to think Usan. Charlotte knows the risks the King's Guard takes for the good of the kingdom."

"And do not think that I will not make an example of Thomas for the good of mine. It would be monstrous beyond imagining to manipulate me into doing so, but not as monstrous as ordering raids when my people are still recovering." If it had not been for the magic of the truce circle, the anger that Usan had struggled to contain since his cousin had been captured would have exploded in a violent outburst. "I will release them on the condition that you swear by this circle to extend our father's truce until both of our sons reign."

The goblin lieutenants growled at him, and Usan sensed Tibir and Dirzal tense behind him. There was no point to it; none of them could harm the other within the truce circle. Boars tusk's pig face remained emotionless.

"And if I don't?"

The bluff didn't work. "You will. You might be hideous beyond reason, but you are not that callous and cruel." Usan replied.

Boarstusk inclined his head in defeat and smiled. "Agreed. Our fathers' truce will be upheld until both of our sons are kings. There is another reason that I called this meeting." He added when Usan made to leave. Frowning, Usan turned back to the goblins. "It may interest you to know that your wife's father is still at Hollow Hill. He's hired a detective from Scotland Yard to investigate her disappearance."

"So?" Usan asked. "Neither of them will find anything."

"But both of them are asking prying questions. The detective has been looking into Charlotte's disappearance as well as the 'murders' of my grandmother and Emily by their guardian. It will draw too much attention to us."

Usan nodded. It wouldn't take long for the history of disappearances to be uncovered; humans might be willfully blind to the world around them, but it wouldn't take more than a scratch at the surface for them to realize that there was something odd about Hollow Hill. The elves might only kidnap a human once in a generation, but this presented a real problem for the goblins. "What do you propose to do?"

Boarstusk raised an eyebrow. "Me? It's not my father-in-law causing trouble. I propose you make sure that he leaves and the detective ends his digging."

"Enchant them?" He would have had no problem with the idea a year ago, but now Usan knew that Lena would consider something like this to be a betrayal. And that would lose him her trust forever. Boarstusk had no such qualms however and gave a short nod.

"I don't care how, just so long as they leave and never come back." The goblin king remarked. "I'll give you till midsummer, but if they are still here then I will do it myself. If you are going to ask me not to raid your people for brides, you cannot act in a way that keeps us from looking to the humans as well."

"I agree. You'll know as soon as it is done." Usan replied, trying to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach. The welfare of the elves had to come first, but it did not keep him from despising himself for the grief this would cause Lena.

Boarstusk reached into his coat pocket. "Thank you. Here, this is for your wife." He held out a white paper that had been folded into an envelope. "It's from Collette. My mother told her how Kate and Miranda used to write to each other and Collette wanted to see if Lena to continue the practice. It would be good for both of them." He added. "Humans women seem to like that sort of thing.

Usan wasn't sure what discomforted him more, hearing his mother's goblin name or Lena's come from Boarstusk's mouth, but her took the letter and tucked it into his belt. "I'll ask her. Tell my aunt Thomas will be home before dawn."

"I will." The two kings said farewell and went their separate ways. Less than ten minutes later, Usan and his lieutenants were crossing the camp boundary.

"Dirzal, I want you to escort Hunter and Thomas back to the goblin lands- make sure they arrive safely." Usan noticed Lena walking up to him. "No one is to speak a word about her father, am I clear?" His lieutenants nodded and went about their business while he turned his attention to his wife. "See? I told you I'd be back before morning." He smiled at her to hide the conflict he would soon have to confront.

Lena saw the grimness on Usan's face disappear faster than a blink. "Did the meeting go well?" she asked. She hid her own emotions often enough to recognize when someone else was doing it. "Did the goblin king agree to the treaty?"

Usan wrapped his arms around her and held her close as he kissed her. "He did. There will be peace in our time." He held onto her hand, and his smiled beamed down at her. "Let's go dance and celebrate!"

She followed him, willing to share in his pretense of happiness as the elves danced until it grew too light. In their tent that morning, Lena watched Usan carefully as they prepared to sleep. He caught her looking and reached out to stroke her hair.

"What is it?"

Lena pressed her cheek into his hand. "Is everything alright Usan?" she quietly asked. He seemed alarmed at first, and then pulled her close to him.

"It will be my love. I promise it will."

"Lena, we're going up to the crest of the hill to practice a spell." Sura called. "You'll love it! Come with us and watch!"

Lena looked up from her letter to Collette and smiled at her friend. "I'll be there in a few minutes, I just want to finish this letter." She turned back to the letter in question and resumed writing. _I still find it hard to comprehend the sheer optimism of the elves- negative emotions are a rarity here, but even when they do appear, there is the sense that it won't be for long. In regards to your story of how you met Usan and Boarstusk, it may amuse you to know that Usan went and learned about the myth of Paris' Judgement shortly after that night._ She set the letter aside to give to one of the guards and rose to her feet, dusting off her hands as she joined the Sura and the other elf women. "So what does this spell do?"

Sura grinned at her mischievously. "It's a surprise." And despite Lena's attempts to pry more information from the two other elf women, they both remained in equal impish silence. The small group crossed a small brook and made their way past trees covered in moss that seemed to glow in the moonlight. It was small things like the enchanted moss that continued to surprise Lena with how much the elvish world incorporate beauty into it. Even their magic was beautiful. Despite her initial encounter with it, elvish magic was one of the things about her new life that Lena loved.

"So are there any humans who can do magic?" she asked as they started uphill. A year ago, she would have never asked such a question, but it occurred to her now that perhaps the tales of witches and faeries her mother had told her weren't so far fetched after all. The elf women shot each other upset looks and Lena turned to Sura. "Did I say something wrong?"

Sura shook her head, but even she looked uneasy. "No, I think we all just forgot you didn't know. It's not something that we often speak of you see. Humans aren't supposed to have magic, not unless they've got elvish, dwarfish, or goblin blood. The only other way is if they make a deal with a demon, and only truly evil human are willingly to do that."

Lena nodded, not quite sure how she felt about this knowledge, and the group quickly resumed its happy chatter. The trees wrapped around the hill in a spiral, but instead of drawing tighter the closer they drew to the top, the crest of the hill was bare of trees. Hemlock and other late spring flowers grew throughout the grass there, and as the two other women spread themselves out in a circle, Sura motioned for Lena to go to the center of the ring. Once she was in position, one of the women began singing, with the other woman singing the descant as Sura magically produced a harp. A glowing from the ground pulled her attention to the tall hemlock flowers; the umbels had become luminescent, shining like little star all around the crest. Entranced by the flowers, it took a few moments for Lena to realize that the elf women had stopped singing; the music she heard was the very wind itself, the notes in time with the strings Sura played on her harp. The other elf women raised their hands in unison, sending glowing orbs of light floating upwards from the flowers; the orbs began to spin, interlacing each other in an elaborate dance. Something overcame Lena then, some sudden urge that pulled her into a spontaneous dance. She began to twirl and leap, her arms moving along with the gently bobbing orbs as Lena spun and stepped from foot to foot in a dance of her own making. The elf women watched her with fascination, finding her dance astonishingly graceful for a human, and they joined her in celebration of this. Lena danced and danced, letting herself be carried away with the beauty of the elvish magic, feeling wholly content for the first time since her wedding. She was so enraptured in her dancing and the magic that she didn't notice the elf women disappear giggling down the hill. Lena made a pirouette and stopped abruptly; Usan stood a few feet away from her.

"How long have you been there?" She asked nervously, suddenly out of breath as she looked to see where the others had gone.

He smiled and moved closer to her. "Not long. You looked so beautiful and happy- please don't stop on my account." The wind music resumed with a flick of his hand. Lena wanted to protest, but the power of Usan's smile was overwhelming and her own heart wanted to keep dancing besides. She began the pirouette she had stopped and reached on a sudden impulse, reached for his hand. Usan took it and guided her through the turn. Alone on the hill crest, they began to dance together, turned and and gliding around each other, away from each other, before joining together; with Usan as her partner, Lena felt like the most graceful creature in existence. Eternity could have passed and she wouldn't have noticed. At some point, they stopped dancing and sat down amongst the grass and flowers. Lena laid down, gazing up at the stars, unable to pin point just why she was so happy. Usan stared down at his wife, more astounded than ever before at how something not elvish could be so beautiful.

"What are you thinking?" He knew every secret his elves had, but Lena's ability to keep her thoughts to herself intrigued him as much as it sometimes irritated him.

Lena stared up at the stars and the hemlock globes which were starting to dim as she thought about his question. The answer made her laugh, embarrassed.

The elf king propped himself up on an elbow. "What? What is so funny?"

She bit her lip before deciding to tell him the truth. "It's silly, but I was thinking how much I want you to kiss-" the rest of her sentence was cut off by his lips. As Usan's fingers ran through her hair, Lena felt her dress fall off of her shoulders; she returned his kisses eagerly, her fingers clumsy as she struggled with his shirt. A moment later, it disappeared and she saw it a few feet away on top of her own dress.


	6. Chapter 6

And after much ado, Chapter 6! Thanks to MirandaAganir- I'm going with a more realistic plot first :)

Nearly two years after her marriage, Lena was playing a singing game with Sura and several children and holding her own fairly well. She was finishing up a rendition of a folksong her father had often sung when she saw Usan walk past their group with his lieutenants. It was so rare to see him frowning that the sight made Lena falter in her song and the children to cheer their victory.

"What is it?" Sura asked, shooing the children off to play.

Lena's eyes stared after her husband. "I'm not sure, but something's happened." She followed after the trio, catching up with them at the entrance of the spring library.

"I'll send two of the guard to scout out the town before the court makes the journey." Dirzal said and Usan gave a short nod of permission.

"What's going on?" she asked and all three men turned to her with the same look of being caught discussing something they didn't want overheard. Dirzal and Tibir excused themselves as Usan wrapped Lena in his arms.

"Boarstusk sent me a message about a human who has been in the Hollow Lake village for several months. He's been asking suspicious questions about the Richardson family lately."

Lena looked up at this. "What kind of questions?"

Usan made a little shrug as if the matter weren't too concerning for him. "Questions about the family's history. He apparently is very interested about when exactly the family came to the Hill. Boarstusk is more worried about his curiosity about the legends the humans tell about the disappearing girls. The man's apparently found it very interesting that the Richardson's lost two daughters."

"He won't find anything will he?" she asked. Lena couldn't help but wonder how deep someone with a bit of knowledge would have to dig into Hollow Hill to discover that there was something going on there. There were literally centuries worth of stories about girls going missing; she found it incredible that no one had investigated the Hill before, but Usan had brushed her off when she'd raised the question before. As she looked up at her husband's face now, Lena decided not to remind him of this. Instead, she tugged at his hand. "Let's go for a walk. The stars look so pretty reflected on the lake from up on the hill."

"Later my love. I need to speak to the Scholars first." He kissed her and headed off to where the Scholars met. Lena frowned after him, reading the truth that he hadn't told her everything in how his shoulders tensed again as Usan walked with a cadence that sent his elves scurrying out of his way. She gave a little smirk at how terrible he was at hiding his emotions before she went off to find Sura again, ignoring the returning tightening in her stomach. The past few nights Lena had struggled in the early evening with little cramps that warned her that eating food would be a bad idea. As a result, she has stuck to water and fruit, but tonight her stomach decided on a greater rebellion. Lena bolted behind a tree before anyone could see her and retched until her meager breakfast lay spattered on the ground. A cool, soothing touch was on her neck and she turned to see Kiba smiling sympathetically at her.

"Elf women do not have the same troubles as human women, but Sika had the same illness when she was pregnant with the King." Kiba waved her hand and the vomit was neatly buried in the earth."

Lena blinked at her, unaware that her free hand had flown to her stomach. "Wh-wh- you- you think I'm pregnant?" Mentally, she counted back to her last course and realized that it had been two months ago. Still shocked by the realization, Lena turned her attention back to Kiba. "I don't understand, can Usan not tell with his magic?"

Kiba laughed as if she'd said something utterly hilarious. "Commoner or king, I don't think a man has the magic to sense that!" Her laughter eased to a chuckle. "I'll make you some of the remedy that Sika used. It will help with the evening sickness." As Lena followed the elf woman towards her tent, her mind reeled as she tried to come to terms with a magical pregnancy. She knew about birth of course; it was impossible not to have seen animals born on the ranch and her mother had taken Lena with her when she'd gone to help at a neighbor's labor, but those experiences told her nothing about what to expect. There wouldn't be nine months of excited anticipation to find out the gender of her baby; it had been very clear that both races King's Wives had always borne sons. Unlike her mother and their female neighbors, Lena also knew that this would be her only pregnancy. She swallowed back a bitter pang at the reminder. She'd never given much thought as to having a family of her own growing up, but when she did there had always been more than one child in her imaginings. Lena suddenly stopped. Her parents would never know about their grandson. Realizing that her patient was no longer behind her, Kiba stopped as well and turned with a worried look on her face back to Lena. She hurriedly wiped away the sudden tears welling in her eyes; the elf woman wouldn't understand why she was upset, and even if Kiba did there was nothing she could do about it. Lena caught up with her and they continued on their way.

Later that night, Lena sat onto on the hill she had wanted to walk to with Usan earlier, staring at the mirror of the lake. It was almost impossible to tell where sky ended and lake began. Absentmindedly, her fingers plucked blades of grass for something to do while she watched the stars and listened to the distant music coming up from the dancing meadow. Footsteps approached and she turned to see Usan making his way towards her.

"I did mean to come up here with you." He said apologetically, clearly worried that he had upset her. "You didn't have to come alone."

She gave him a reassuring smile and shook her head. "You were busy and I knew you'd find me." He sat down beside her, and as the elf King's arm wrapped around her shoulder, Lena wondered just how she would tell him. But Usan spoke before she could say anything.

"I wish it were possible for our son to have your eyes instead of mine." He murmured as his fingers played with the end of one of her braids. "They are one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen." Startled, Lena turned to look at him, her mouth in an O of surprise. Grinning, Usan closed her lips with a kiss. "Kiba told me." He explained and then held her out. "You aren't upset by this are you?" Utan's voice was pained with worry and to Lena's astonishment, a little bit of fear.

"Of course not." She replied, catching his hand up in hers. And it was true that it wasn't carrying the Heir that made her sad, but she did not have the words to explain to Usan what did. The sheer elation and joy on the elf King's face when she said this was breathtaking, and Lena let her wordless sorrows disappear into the beauty of it.


	7. Chapter 7

Thank you all for being so patient with me getting this out! I don't have much time for fun writing at the end of term at uni, but that's now over (for a few months at least), so the chapters should be coming more regularly now :) Enjoy, and if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments! :)

The weather turned quickly that autumn; the wind howled over the steep bluffs and the pines creaked and groaned as they were battered by it. With their seeming invulnerability to the elements, life went along as usual in the camp, save for the elves donning their winter clothes early. The scholars had predicted an early winter that year and the weather was proving them right. Thanks to Kiba's tea, Lena's evening sickness vanished, but Usan continued to treat her as if she were made of glass until Lena finally had enough.

"I'm only four months along," she complained while Usan cleaned her feet as they prepared for bed one morning. He made a small grimace at the annoyance in her voice. "If you keep worry about me like you have been, you'll only wear yourself out. Human women have babies all the time and what problems we do have I don't have to worry about because of your magic-"

"Lena, you don't fully realize just how important our son is." He interrupted. With his task complete, he replaced the jar of cleaning ointment into its box and turned to her. "The King's Wives before the harrowing had the benefit of elvish magic as well, but that didn't top my people from nearly dying out. We're still recovering. Our son will only be the third reigning king since the harrowing. His birth is more than just a future for the elves, it is hope. I 'worry' as you call it, because of that. And because I love you."

She reached out caressed his face. "I know you do. But you can go more than an hour in between asking me if I need to rest." That got the smile from him that Lena knew it would. She nestled against him and Usan wrapped his cloak around them both. "There's a reason the Seven Star haven't made me do any of the things you've asked."

A few weeks later, Lena was working on a sling for the baby with Sura, who had just found out that she was expecting her first child as well, when Usan came up to where they were sitting carrying a wrapped box.

"This just arrived for you from my aunt Charlotte, along with her congratulations." The elf King sat down beside her and watched as Lena opened the package and took out the letter that lay on top of the presents. Handing the box to to Usan, Lena read Charlotte's note:

 _Dear Lena,_

 _As pretty as the elves are, you've probably noticed they don't really understand our human concept of the comforts of home, so I hope these gifts bring your world a little closer. It seems only right to me that your son have something of his mother's world. Collette shared with me your love of books, so I've included some of the books that the trading journey brought back. I do find Jack London to be quite thrilling- is that trolling what the American frontier is like? Though it's for children, I thought you might enjoy reading L. Frank Baum's latest books to your son when he is born._

 _I hope you will not mind me saying this, but I know that my sister would have been thrilled at this. The baby blanket is made from the last elvish cloth she sent me- before you argue, I know that Miranda would want you to have it._

 _Give Usan my love,_

 _Charlotte_

Lena finished the letter and saw the blanket in the elf King's hands. The elvish weaver who had made the cloth had worked with different shades of green and brown, creating a fabric that captured every color of the forrest. But the cloth that Lena had seen Kiba and the other women make was never textured like the fabric of the blanket was. "My cousin Emily must have re-worked the cloth." Usan explained when she asked about the intricate leaves and knot work that had been worked into the blanket. "She has quite the gift for textiles." They both looked up at the sound of some calling for the king. Disrzal and another elf man that Lena did not recognize ran up to them and the atmosphere changed immediately. Something was wrong: both Disrzal and the new elf were out of breath and Lena realized, they were both fearful. As Usan's military commander, Disrzal was the bravest of the els, yet now he looked truly scared. Sura was on her feet and at her husband's side in an instant, but he shook off her hand.

"Min, what is wrong?" Usan asked. Lena didn't know when he'd gotten to his feet. "Has something happened at your father's camp?"

The young elf man nodded. "Yes Aganir. Two nights ago, a group of our musicians went into the human village a quarter night's walk from the camp to play at their harvest fair. One of them, Girtab, never returned. My father slipped into the village, but there was no trace of him anywhere."

"I've already contacted the goblin commander- Boarstusk has kept to our treaty and there were no goblins anywhere near the camp." Dirzal added. "And Lord Satar says that elves have been the only ones to cross the border nearest his camp."

Within moments there was a flurry of activity around them as Usan gave orders for the border guard to be doubled during his absence. "I'll only be gone for a night or two." He assured Lena before turning to his advisors. "Send Boarstusk a message to meet at the truce circle once I've returned." The elves disappeared to do as they were bid, leaving the elf King and his wife alone.

Lena gripped Usan's hand. "What do you think has happened?"

"I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it isn't good. The only real threat to an elf is a goblin." Lena pursed her lips, not wanting to point out that even an elf would not be able to fight off a group of human thugs. "And that only leaves sorcerers, which means demons." She noticed he swallowed quickly. "But I'll need to go to the village before I know for sure."

Usan had told her of the only way for humans to have magic and the thought that someone with a demon pact might be responsible for the missing elf made Lena's skin crawl. "What will you do if it is a sorcerer?"

"Kill him. I don't have a choice." The elf King grimaced in distaste. "The demon is only interested in collecting their part of the bargain, so they will leave as soon as the human is dead."

That morning, Lena entered their tent alone and wished that she had the Daylight Spell to send her to sleep. She lay awake with her cloak pulled over her eyes well past dawn, her eyes blinded by the daylight. Something nagged at the back of her mind and when Lena finally fell asleep, she slept badly. The next evening, the entire camp was unusually tense and subdued; even the children seemed quieter at their play, as if they sensed the adult's unease.

"The goblin King's grandfather fought a sorcerer once." Kiba told her as Lena joined a group of the women for a walk. The normal amount of chatter was hushed and it fell silent when the older elf woman spoke. "The sorcerer managed to enslave sixty goblins and the King as well. They would have all been killed if not for his wife." Lena thought back to her knowledge of the chronicles. That would have Kate, she thought to herself. Part elvish, Kate had had her own magic to see her through the encounter, but how could Lena fight such a threat if it came to that? The walk ended shortly after that and when they returned to camp, Lena was almost giddy with relief to see that Usan had returned. She ran to him, wrapping her arms around him. The elf King returned her embrace, but there was a hesitation in it that was disquieting.

"Lena," he said quietly, his voice on the edge of breaking. "I need to tell you something."


	8. Chapter 8

Hello everyone! Two things before returning to the story: 1) I'm working on my dissertation now, so I won't be able to publish new chapters as often as I would like. 2) I'm on holiday in the Lake District this week, so hopefully the landscape that inspired the Hollow Kingdom will rub off on me :) Anyway, back to the tale...

She followed him into the forest, her apprehension growing with every minute of Usan's silence. They were far away, nearly to the very edge of the north boundary when Usan stopped.

"What's happened?" she asked, slightly winded from the quick pace he had set. "Usan what is wrong? Did you find the missing musician?"

Usan let out a breath and hung his head, trying to delay the inevitable for a few moments more. "I will have to meet with Boarstusk before the night is out, but I wanted to speak to you first."

Lena could feel her irritation and panic rising at the crypticness of his words. "Speak to me about what? You're scaring me Usan! What has happened?"

"I found Girtab's tracks and when we reached the village. They'd been hidden with magic- the spell was good enough that a camp lord and both of my lieutenants missed the tracks. There were signs of s struggle, and then that he'd been dragged away. We followed the trail out of the village towards the south road where the attacker had a wagon waiting. Tibir headed south to see if he could catch up with them."

"So it was a sorcerer then?" she whispered.

He nodded. "And he had help. We saw the tracks of two other humans where Girtab had been captured. Only two human got into the wagon; the third went back to the village. We found him in a room at the village inn."

Lena caught the hesitation in his voice. "What did you do to him?" she asked quietly, but there was a shadow of the King's magic in Usan's eyes that told her she did not want to know. "Why was he there then?"

"Because he'd been hired to help capture an elf. We found letters from the sorcerer, who was most likely the same man who'd been asking all those questions about the Richardsons and the legends of the missing girls. There were also letters from the man who hired him." His voice caught suddenly and when the elf King looked at her, Lena saw a desolating sorrow in Usan's eyes. "Your father." He pulled out a small sheaf of papers and handed them to her, but Lena's eyes immediately flew to the familiar scrawled signature at the bottom of the letters. Her hands shook so badly that she couldn't read.

"I don't understand." She whispered and the stared at him. "My father isn't here is he?" Barely two months ago Usan had shown her her parents safe and well in Wyoming. Surely there was no way for him to have made it to England so quickly?

Usan's mouth tightened into a painful line. "One of those letters says that he will meet them at the place they've arranged. He is on his way, if he's not here already." He took her hands in his. "Lena, I will have to stop him."

"You won't kill him will you?" she cried, her legs going weak beneath. The elf King helped her to the ground and joined her.

"Not if there is another choice, but he will not stop searching for you. I'd hoped if he found nothing the first time, then he'd give up-"

Lena turned on him at that. "What do you mean 'the first time'?" When he didn't answer, her stomach tightened into a knot. "Usan, what aren't you telling me?"

The elf King flinched away from the sudden ice in her voice, even though he'd known it would be there. He'd known and been dreading this day since his last meeting with Boarstusk. "You know your father came to the Hall to look for you. What I never told you was that he stayed there for six months with the detective he hired. They started asking questions not just about your disappearance, but Collette's, and it reached the point that Boarstusk gave me an ultimatum as a condition for him signing the truce."

"What was the ultimatum?"

"To make sure that your father gave up his search. The best way to that that though would be to enchant him to think you were dead, but I thought I could make him leave without doing that. I know how much what happened to my mother's parents upset you."

The consideration in Usan's words barely registered as Lena's mind reeled at this revelation. She was overjoyed knowing that her father still searched for her, but that joy soured into a gut wrenching pain knowing that he was dangerously entangled in the magical world. "What are you going to do?" Her voice sounded bitter and distant to her eats and she released that the dampness on her face was from tears.

Usan looked as though he had reconciled himself to something terrible. "I have to stop him Lena. I cannot allow any threat to the elves."

"You're going to enchant him, aren't you?" she accused.

He gave a short single nod. "I hope it can still be dealt with that simply."

Lena felt her stomach flip in panic. "What does that mean?" But the elf King wouldn't answer her. She felt a fluttering in her belly and Lena put her hand on her stomach. Her father couldn't truly know just how powerful the people he was provoking were. And could Usan fault him for his actions, when the elves' own history was full of stories of elvish fathers fighting to rescue their daughters from the goblins? And what did he mean by "that simply"? She was almost certain that he didn't mean death was an option, but how would the goblin King deal with the threat to his kingdom that her father and his questions posed? "I want to go with you to the truce circle."

For a moment, she thought that Usan hadn't heard her. "Lena-" he sounded pained, but she went on anyway.

"Neither you or Boarstusk know what it is like to lose a child. None of you do- it's been over two hundred years since any elf parents have lost a daughter." Lena felt the baby stir as if he could hear the franticness of her voice. "Even then, they at least knew what had happened to them. They had a chance to fight back! You cannot blame my father for what he has done!"

Usan's stared up at the stars as if he could some how find a simpler, easier solution to the problem he faced. "Of course I don't, " he assured her, "but Lena, something has to be done to stop him."

"If you want me to ever speak to you again, you'll take me with you." It was the greatest threat she could make and Lena hated herself for making it. Her words had their expected affect; the elf King shut his eyes, truly in pain at the words he'd known she would say. And he hated the words he knew he must say in reply.

"I'm sorry, but no. It is too dangerous."

Lena wasn't sure when she'd returned to their tent afterwards, but she lay down on the pallet, crying tears of rage at the elf King's refusal. He was there now, she knew, in the truce circle deciding her father's fate with the goblin King. She felt helpless and hated it. When Usan returned to the camp, weary from the tense meeting with Boarstusk that had seen his brother king barely able to hide his contempt, Sura told him that Lena had not emerged from the tent. In the following days, Lena made good on her promise to him; try as he might, Usan could not coax a single word from her. She spoke to his elves, but as soon as he approached, his wife would fall silent. He'd forgotten how perseverant her human stubbornness was since Lena had decided to settle in. The elves sensed their king's irritation, which sent the camp into a nervousness that seemed to taint the ethereal beauty of the elvish world. Deep down, Lena's conscious told her that it was wrong of her to allow her anger at Usan to affect the elves, but she pretended that she didn't care.


	9. Chapter 9

The first of the winter snows glowed under the starlight as the elf King made his way back to his camp, but the beauty that should have made him happy was obscured by the crisis he now found himself in. They still had not found Girtab or the sorcerer, and Lena's father had apparently vanished into thin air. He'd reach such a point of desperation that he'd asked Boarstusk for help in locating them, but the water mirror had shown the goblin king nothing.

"I'll keep trying." Boarstusk had told him earlier that night in the truce circle. "But if neither of us finds anything, we need to organize a hunt for them."

Though he had agreed with him, Usan winced when he thought of what Lena's reaction would be to this hunt. She still had not spoken to him and even his elves were beginning to grow wary of her. Elves dealt with negative emotions badly; if someone upset them, they simply stopped speaking to them, and Usan had noticed this happening with a few of the elf women Lena had befriended. His wife drew more and more into herself and Usan had no idea how to bring her back. He fell asleep that night to troubled dreams. The next evening, Lena woke to find the elf King was still asleep. While this might have been trivial in someone else, Usan was always awake before she was. As she observed this unusual event, something seemed wrong. He was too still and his skin seemed paler than normal. Something told her that she needed to wake him, so she reached out to shake his shoulder and found that he was hot to the touch.

"Usan." She murmured. "Usan, wake up."

Lena kept repeating his name as she shook his shoulder again and again. It was several minutes before his eyes opened. She'd never seen the handsome elf King look bleary and exhausted before and it strengthened the feeling that something was wrong. Usan blinked, surprised to realize that she had been the one calling his name and sat with an unsettling groan. "Are you alright?" she asked.

He seemed bewildered. "I feel… stiff. As if I'd fallen into an icy pond. I don't know how to explain it."

"Do elves get sick?" she asked. "You're hot to the touch."

"It is extremely rare, and for Kings, never. I've never felt this way before." He smiled at her. "But for you to talk to me again, it is worth it."

She frowned and handed him his comb. "Don't test your luck." As if to show that nothing had changed, she quickly pulled on her shoes and cloak and went to bathe. But Usan was still in their tent when she returned. "You aren't feeling well at all, are you?" Lena stated.

The elf King nodded. "But we should go to the morning meal. I don't want the court to see me like this. With things as they are, it would only send them into a panic." He didn't need to say what those things were.

"Alright." She said. "But then you need rest."

"As you wish." Usan said with another weary made their way slowly to the eating area, with several members of the court noticing the apparent reconciliation between their king and his wife and giving them looks of overjoyed approval. The elves were too happy in their believe that Lena was no longer angry at Usan to notice that the elf King barely ate anything. It was nearly midnight and time for court as Lena and Usan sat just outside their tent.

"You need to rest. Surely it won't matter if you cancel court this once." She argued. Usan had spent the hours after breakfast trying to rid himself of whatever was ailing him with magic, but nothing had worked. "I'm sure you wouldn't be the first king to do so."

The elf King didn't answer for a moment as he attempted yet another spell. His frustrated sigh told Lena it had failed as well. "You're probably right, but everything needs to appear normal if we're going to avoid panic."

Lena was about to point out that the elf King feeling ill was anything but normal when both of them heard someone shouting for the king. She helped Usan to his feet, unsettled even more when he actually stumbled with his first step, and they made their way towards the commotion. A group of elves that had gathered around one of the King's Guard parted at their approach and the breathless guard saluted them.

"Aganir."

Usan motioned for him to end the formality. "What is it?"

The guard seemed overwhelmed and his words came out in a rush that Lena barely caught. "Girtab was found on the edge of the Hollow Lake forrest! He's badly injured-"

His words were cut off in a flurry of movement. Usan called out orders for the guard and summoned his lieutenants, and the next thing Lena knew, they were walking towards the edge of the camp. The elf King turned to her, his face grim. "I don't know what state Girtab is in, but that is not why I don't want you to come. I want you to stay here where I know you will be absolutely safe."

Lena nodded. Usan was doing a remarkable job of hiding it from his elves, but she could see the fear lurking just behind his eyes and it scared her. Of all the emotions she'd witnessed the elf King express, fear had never been one of them. She waited at the border of the camp for the rescue party's return. When they did, it was with a body that floated gently at the center of their formation. Lena ran up to Usan, who looked even more weary than he had when they'd left. "Is he alright?" she asked.

"He's alive." The words sounded hollow and Lena got her first good look at the victim of her father's kidnapping. What she saw made her sick. The young elf man before her was as gaunt as a skeleton. His pale sliver skin was covered in cuts and mottled in bruises; Lena looked at his hands and her skin went cold at the sight of his mangled hands. _Oh papa,_ she thought, _what have you done?_

It took Usan most of the night to heal Girtab; by the time he finished, leaving the young elf in the care of the other healers, it was nearing the last quarter of the night. Lena had never seen any elf display the merest hint of exhaustion, so the worn and weary way the elf King looked was terribly jarring.

"I've never seen such cruelty." He quietly told her in the tent that morning.

She felt tears fill her eyes. "I didn't think he would go this far Usan, not my father."

Usan reached out for her and she crawled into his arms. "I know my love." He said as he held her. They sat quietly as dawn approached. The baby must have sensed his parent's closeness at some point, because Lena felt the odd sensation of him moving inside her. She took the elf King's hand and placed over her stomach.

"What is it- oh!" he exclaimed, his face growing warm and tender as the baby kicked at his hand. Lena rested her head against him. Usan helped her lay on their pallet, kissing her swollen belly. "It is time to sleep son. Let your mother rest." He told their baby. Looking at Lena, he smiled at her with a smile that seemed as if the threats facing them were gone and forgotten. "You are worth all of this."

As sweet as the sentiment was, it was wrong. Lena was about reply that no one should have to suffer because of her when the temporary peace of the tent was broken by Tibir's voice.

"Aganir," he said from just outside their tent, "there is a message from the Goblin King."

Usan climbed towards the tent flap. "What is it?" he asked as his lieutenant handed him a letter. The elf King opened and read it, a frown forming quickly as he read its contents.

Lena watched his reaction, growing uneasy. "What does it say?"

He looked up at her, the unsettling King's look in his eyes. "It's my Aunt Charlotte's family. They've all fallen ill and Boarstusk says it points to a sorcerer." He turned to Tibir. "There's nothing we can do until this evening. Tell him I will meet him at the truce circle after sunset." The lieutenant nodded and left. Usan re-read the letter as he tried to figure out his next step. "Girtab had lost a lot of blood." He mused aloud. "The sorcerer could have used his blood as a base for the curse, but for it to only affect my cousins, he'd need something from the Richardsons."

"The only way he could get that is your uncle." Lena said and Usan nodded.

"It would also explain why I have felt ill." His face was strangely unreadable when he looked at her. "And if I feel like this, it's ten times as worse for my cousins."

Lena thought of Charlotte and the kindness she had shown her, knowing they would never meet and still wanting to give her what comfort she could. Now that woman was being repaid for her kindness by having to watch her children sicken because of Lena's father. Her parents, especially her father, had taught her to return the kindness of others. She never thought that would mean she'd be forced to work against her father. The man who was willing to torture an innocent, to hire a sorcerer to curse his perceived enemies, was no her father. If he knew the truth, knew what his actions had done and were doing, Lena knew what her father would want her to do. "Stop him Usan." She said, her voiced steeled by her decision. "I know you'd do that without my permission, but you have it. If he knew the truth, he'd want you to stop this."


	10. Chapter 10

Hello all, long time no post! Sorry about that, I was working on my Masters, then moving to a different country, starting a new job, and a bunch of other hectic stuff. Anywho's I'm back withe the next bit of the story. It is nearly done :( but if you guys would like to see any more Hollow Kingdom stuff, just let me know! :)

Lena tensed as Usan's dry hacking cough interrupted the orders he was giving to his warriors; inside her, she felt the baby give a timid little kick, as if he too was upset by his father's worsening condition. The goblin cousins were even worse: the goblin king was having to keep two of them alive with magic. They were certain that the spell that weakened Usan had not affected their son. Yet. She shivered at the horrible promise that word brought and into the view of the elf King and his warriors. Despite suffering the effects of this spell, the smile he had whenever he saw her was a joyfully breathtaking as always, making it all the more tragic. Usan opened his arms to her and Lena walked into his embrace, trying to ignore how cold his hands felt even with her dress between his skin and hers.

"How are you?" The words were quiet, but she could hear the pleading in his voice, the begging to have the certainty of something good.

"We are fine." Lena assured him. "Is everyone ready?

Usan nodded. "Yes. Are you sure you feel up to play your part still?"

She nodded, even though she was beginning to hate herself for what she was about to do to her father. Seeing this, the elf King hugged distraught wife tightly, kissing her forehead.

"It is a good plan" he consoled. "And the kindest solution for him and your mother."

The warriors had returned from saying their own farewells to their families. "I know." Lena said quickly. "You'd better go. I'll see you outside the truce circle." Their kiss lasted a little longer than it perhaps needed to, as if both of them wanted to delay what was coming for as long as possible. "Go." She finally whispered. As Lena watched Usan and the elf warriors cross the camp boundary, she thought back to the night of the truce meeting when goblins and elves had agreed upon this plan. Despite the deadly seriousness of their mission, when she had stepped outside of the camp boundary for the first time in two years, Lena had felt what she thought was an inappropriate amount of excitement. When they'd reached the truce circle, it hadn't been hard for Lena to pick out the goblin King: she hadn't realized just how literal the goblin Kings' epithets were. In any other circumstance, the sheer shocked surprise on the faces of Boarstusk and his lieutenants when they saw the elf King's Wife enter the truce circle alongside the elf King would have been amusing.

"You didn't tell him I was coming, did you?" she whispered to Usan, catching the tiniest twitch of the corner of his mouth that both gave her an answer and told her the humor of the situation was not lost.

"Greetings brother." Usan said, forcing the goblin King to shake himself of his surprise. Boarstusk looked Lena up and down.

"What is she doing here?" His bluntness took Lena aback. It really was true what she'd heard about goblins then;

Lena frowned at Boarstusk. "It is my father who is behind this and my fault this has happened in the first place." She snapped, surprising the elves with the ice they had never heard in her voice before. "I was the one who persuaded Usan not to make him think I was dead."

The goblin king blinked and then laughed, holding up his hands in a mock-surrender. "Please do not misunderstand me." He began, his tone much friendlier than it had seemed before. "Had I known that you would be here, I'd have brought Colette along- she'd have loved the chance to actually meet you I'm sure. So," he looked from her to Usan, "I presume you have a plan for how to rid ourselves of this danger?"

The plan was fairly simple. They knew where her father and the sorcerer were. Lena would write a letter that would lure her father back to the Hall where some of the elf and goblin warriors would be waiting for him, while the rest of the warriors and both Kings went and killed the sorcerer. The two groups would meet up and bring Lena's father to the borderlands between the goblin and elf kingdoms, where Lena would be waiting.

"And what makes you so certain that your father will not return?" Boarstusk had asked when she'd finished. "You cannot mean to allow him to keep his knowledge of our existence. Your husband may not mind, but I cannot allow a human that."

"I will enchant him to forget us." Usan said; Lena could tell he was more than a little insulted by the implication that he did not care for the safety of his subjects. "With the letters Lena will write, it will be easy enough to plant the false memory in his mind."

Lena nodded. "He'll have no reason to return. If there's a way for the memory spell to pass to my mother through my letters…" her voice trailed off as she saw Boarstusk's smirk. "Well I don't know what all you can do with magic!" she snapped. "Two and a half years ago, I never could have even dreamed of having this conversation, much less of being in a situation like this."

Boarstusk shrugged. "True. There may be some spell that could do that- I'll ask our Scholars."

The memory faded as Lena stared at the box in the tent that held the enchanted letters. With a start, she realized that someone was calling her name; peeking outside the tent, she saw Min waiting in the enormous cavern that formed their shelter at the winter camp. The youngest warrior had been left behind to escort her to the meeting place when it was time. Lena blinked; how long had she been in the tent? She didn't even remember returning to the winter caves. "Is it time?" she asked, her voice quavering a little. Min nodded. "Right. I'm coming." Her belly was so large now that Min had to help her to her feet. In any other circumstance, her pregnancy clumsiness would have set the unnaturally graceful elves to laughter and teasing. Not now though. The very survival of their race was at stake and it was Lena's fault. Wrapping her cloak tightly around her, she led the way out of the caves, gasping at the cold that greeted her outside. Min had taken off his own cloak and was reading it for the travel spell that would take them both to where both kings and the warriors would be waiting with her father. She took hold of Min's hand and the two of them stepped into the cloak's circle, stepping out with their next breath into the forrest of the borderlands.

"They should be just ahead." Min said.

But they weren't. Lena and Min waited together as the cold winter air made their breath sparkle in the night. _Something must have gone wrong_ , Lena thought to herself as the long minutes made her apprehension grow. _Why else would they not be here yet?_ "Min tensed suddenly. "What is it?" she whispered.

"They are coming." He replied, his relaxation clear. A moment latter, Lena heard the noise of many people making their way towards them, and another moment longer, Usan appeared through the trees.

Lena ran to him, but stopped short when she saw the shallow cut that ran from his left temple down to the corner of his mouth. As he in his arms, she reached out and tenderly brushed it with her fingertips. "What happened?"

Equally gently, but firmly, he pulled her hand away. "The sorcerer put up a hard fight before we killed him. All of our warriors fought well and bravely, but none of us came out of his lair unscathed. Tibir was nearly killed- he'll recover," he quickly assured her. "As will I."

"I think it improves his looks." Boarstusk said lightly as he and the goblin warriors entered the clearing, but Lena noticed that the goblin King seemed exhausted as he clapped Usan's shoulder in a sign of camaraderie. "I will send word as soon as your cousins are well."

"Thank you brother." The elf King said quietly and then turned to his remaining lieutenant. "Take our worst wounded back to came and have the healers began attending them. I will return shortly. The rest of you come with Lena and me."

As his orders were obeyed, Lena asked the question she already knew the answer to. "My father is at the Hall then?"

Usan nodded. "Yes. The rest of the goblin warriors captured him already." He started walking in the direction that the goblin King and his men were, but Lena stopped him. "What is it? There's nothing to be frightened of."

"That's not it." She replied. "I couldn't do this in front of Boarstusk though. He's not looking is he?"

Her husband gave her a confused look. "No. Do wha-" her kissed cut him off. Not for the first time since marrying her was Usan confounded by the unpredictability of humans; her cheeks her wet with tears.

"I love you. I'd never have forgiven myself if something had happened to you." Lena whispered to him, and despite the casualties to his warriors and the marring wound on his face, the elf King was happy.


	11. Chapter 11

Even dimmed, the light of the library in Hallow Hall was bright enough to make Lena's eyes sting. It wasn't the stringing that made her eyes tear though; she let go of Usan's hand and walked towards the unconscious figure restrained in the her, the elf King nodded, and the goblin lifted the enchantment that kept their prisoner asleep. As soon as the magic was gone, he was awake and raging.

"Where the hell am I?" her father roared. Though she couldn't see his face yet, Lena saw him tense and beads of sweat appear on his neck at the sight of the goblin guards around him; the elvish ones didn't seem to concern him. "You have no authority to keep me here you deformed freaks!"

"Hunter, I believe that my people have this well in hand." Usan suddenly said, walking forward into her father's field of vision as he motioned for Lena to stay were she was for the moment. "There's no need for you to have more reasons for revenge."

The goblin commander shrugged and then motioned for the other goblins to follow him as he left the room. As they departed, the elf King knelt down in front of his father-in-law. "You have caused me more grief than you know." He told the older man, seeing in the stubborn set of his jaw where Lena had inherited that trait from.

"And it is still only a fraction of the grief you have caused my wife and I!" her father snapped. "Where is my daughter? Were the letters some part of your sick twisted game? Some new sadistic kind of magical fakery?"

"No papa." Lena said, her resolve breaking. She walked to face her father, grateful for the steadying presence of Usan that kept her from collapsing to the ground because of her shaking legs. "The letters weren't fake."

Her father's eyes widened as first he saw her face, and then her strange elvish clothing before they nearly bulged when they reached the round mound of her pregnant belly. Lena realized what was about to happen first.

"Usan, he's going to faint!" she cried, and the elf King saw that his wife was right. As his wife knelt by her father, the elf King did a quick but of magic to revive him. He blinked several times before focusing on Lena's face. The change was immediate: everything softened about this grizzled and rough human man as he saw the daughter he'd thought gone forever. Usan saw his hands strain against the binds and guessed at what he was trying to do; another quick gesture saw the restraints undone and Lena's father reached out to touch her face.

"Are you a ghost?" he whispered. "Did the monsters kills me and now I'm in heaven."

Lena was smiling, laughing, and crying all at once as she pressed her father's rough and calloused hand against her cheek. "I'm alive papa. It's all real." He was out of his chair and holding her in one of his bear hugs before she knew it. How long they stayed like that, she didn't know, but eventually, they pulled apart and Lena remembered that introductions needed to be made. "Papa," she began, "There's so much to tell you, to explain."

Her father nodded. "Yes. But you can tell me that on our way home."

The fight to hold back her tears was one that she nearly lost. "Father," she began again, and he caught the change in her tone, "I am home. I told you in those letters that I had married. This is my husband, Usan."

To her surprise he glared at him. "What spell have your put on my daughter elf?"

Usan opened his mouth to say something, but Lena cut him off. "How do you know he's an elf?" she asked.

Her father turned back to her with a look as if she had asked if the sky were blue. "Two years of searching for you Lena, and you don't think I learned the legends of this damned part of the world? Why else do you think I'd have found some madman who practices magic to help me find you?" her father turned back to Usan. "I presume Crighton is dead then?"

"Yes." Usan's face was inhumanly, beautifully impassive and all the more terrifying because of the cut across it. Lena could see the barely contained fury in his cold black eyes and felt a sudden surge of panic that he would abandon their plan.

Impulsively, she grabbed her father's hand. "Papa, listen to me. I am not going back with you. I know what you did was out of love for me, but what you did hurt a lot a innocent people, people who have been kind to me. Your sorcerer nearly killed some of them, and their king could have had you killed for that." Lena had to slow down and catch her breath before continuing. "The only reason you are alive right now is because of Usan's love for me-" she stopped and looked from father to husband. "I can't do it like this Usan. We have time to explain it all to him, surely?"

"Dawn's two hours away." He replied. "It should be enough time."

And so Lena told him everything that Usan had explained to her the night after the wedding about the hidden world of the elves and goblins. Her father had pieced together quite a bit from the local legends in his search for her, but there were still misconceptions, inaccuracies, and out right holes in his knowledge. Even knowing that Usan would have to erase this from her father's memory, it soothed Lena's conscience to be able to explain things to her father.

After she told him, an awkward silence fell over the room. "So your," he began, hesitating over the word that was coming next, "husband is not only old Richardson's nephew, who he knows nothing about, but is the king of the elves?"

"Yes." Lena nodding, the scrunched expression on her face admitting how incredulous it all sounded. "The night I went missing was when he, well, he kidnapped me and performed the King's Wife Ceremony."

"And the baby?" her father said with a nod to her stomach.

"Will be the next elf King. The Heir for the the goblin and elf Kings' is always male, I don't know why. And each King only ever had one child, so you and mama won't have that mess of grandchildren you teased me about wanting." Lena tried to smile, but the old joke seemed incredibly sad now.

Her father shook his head. "Lena, we thought we'd lost you. I couldn't care one jot if you have one child, none, or a baker's dozen." He gave a little laugh. "And in two months, your mother and I will have a grandson. I'll be able to know that won't I?" he added, looking at Usan apprehensively. When Usan seemed surprised by the question, he added, "I know you don't think highly of human intelligence, but really, do you think I am simple minded enough to think that you were going to let me leave knowing what I do?"

Lena saw Usan's mouth twitch in a barely hidden laugh. "You may keep the knowledge that you have a grandson. Once we know his name, I will even send word."

Her father nodded gratefully. "When you are father, you will understand why I did what I did. There is no knowing how far a parent is willing to go for their child until you are one." He told them both. "When your son is born, you will understand why I will not apologize for my actions." He took Lena's face in his hands. "You know you mother and I love you Lena. No matter how far apart, no matter what happens."

It was a goodbye. "I know papa." She whispered. "I love you too."

"And if you don't teach the little boy Gaelic, your mother will have your hide." He added, making them both laugh. He sobered. "Now, I have something I need to say to him that you don't need to hear." Her father stated, jerking his head towards Usan. "It's words I'd say to any man who married you, elven king or no." He said when Lena didn't move to leave.

They hugged again, more tightly than before and he kissed her forehead for the last time before Lena left her father alone with the elf King. With a start, she realized that the elf warriors who'd accompanied them had all been waiting out in the hall; she hadn't even notice them leave the library. The great clock a floor below them combed the quarter and then the half hour before Usan emerged from the room. He walked over to Lena quickly. "The spell's in place and he's sleeping if you want to say goodbye." He said quietly.

Lena nodded and walked back towards the library. He'd left the door open for her, but when she saw her father's sleeping in the armchair, a weary smile on his face, everything came crashing down and Lena couldn't make herself enter the room. She stood in the doorway, silently crying.

Usan placed a hand on her shoulder. "He's dreaming that you met with him and told him he will be a grandfather." He softly told her. Seeing the tears on her cheeks, Usan reached out and wiped them away. "Are you alright?" he asked as she stared at her father's sleeping figure.

She took his hand and smile ruefully. "I will be." Lena turned away from the door and her old life that lay within it. "Let's go home."


End file.
